U.S. v. Gibbs, 78-5584
| Decision Date | 27 April 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-5584,78-5584 |
| Citation | 594 F.2d 125 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Charles E. GIBBS, Defendant-Appellant. Summary Calendar. * |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Steven R. Heller, Jacksonville, Fla. (Court-appointed) for defendant-appellant.
John J. Daley, Jr., U.S. Atty., Ernst D. Mueller, Asst. U.S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Before AINSWORTH, GODBOLD and VANCE, Circuit Judges.
Appellant Charles E. Gibbs was convicted after a jury trial of "knowingly and fraudulently receiv(ing) (a) material amount of property from a bankrupt after the filing of a bankruptcy proceeding, with intent to defeat the bankruptcy law" in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 152. On appeal he asserts two points of error: first, that the district court improperly denied his motion for a continuance, and second, that the Government failed to introduce evidence concerning the substance of the bankruptcy laws for purposes of proving an "intent to defeat the bankruptcy law" and thus failed to prove an essential element of the crime charged. We find appellant's arguments without merit and affirm his conviction.
During 1977 appellant was the president of the Meyer Hotel Company, Inc. and responsible for management of the Robert Meyer Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. On May 31, 1977 the Hotel filed a petition in bankruptcy under Chapter XI and was subsequently adjudicated a bankrupt on November 1, 1977. In June 1977 Gibbs presented fictitious invoices for bedding and linens for $3,638.44 and $7,963.28 in the name of Continental Hotel Service Corp. (Continental) to the Hotel, and had checks in those amounts issued to Continental by the Hotel. On June 27 appellant opened a bank account of which he was the sole signatory in the name of Continental at the Jacksonville National Bank. The address given for Continental on the invoices and on the bank account was a fictitious address in Atlanta and the Hotel received no bedding or linens corresponding to the invoices. The two checks for $3,638.44 and $7,963.28 were deposited in Continental's bank account on June 29 and July 5 respectively.
In July 1977 Richard McKenzie, assistant manager of the Hotel, notified the FBI of the fraudulent Continental invoices. On July 25 Gibbs wrote the Hotel's attorney concerning the invoices and checks and later transferred $7,963.28 from the Continental account back to the Hotel. The Hotel closed on August 12 and in a subsequent interview with an FBI agent appellant explained that he had returned the $7,963.28 but that the $3,638.44 represented money owed him by the Hotel for various Hotel expenses he had paid out of his own pocket. Gibbs wrote to the agent on August 15 sending a number of invoices corresponding to those expenses for which he claimed the $3,638.44 as reimbursement. Several witnesses testified at trial that many of these invoices had been paid by Hotel employees out of Hotel funds rather than by appellant.
Appellant's first assignment of error concerns the district court's denial of his motion for a continuance. He was indicted on May 11, 1978 and entered a plea of not guilty on June 8. The trial was originally set for July 17. On June 29 Gibbs filed his motion for a continuance stating that it would take the defense a month to prepare for trial. The district court denied the motion on July 5,...
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...if [her] request for a continuance had been granted." United States v. Saget, 991 F.2d 702, 708 (11th Cir.1993). In United States v. Gibbs, 594 F.2d 125 (5th Cir.1979),1 a bankruptcy fraud case, we concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying the defendant's mot......
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